Mediterranean Night !

When Brian and I got back from our Meditertainisn curise we wanted to have people over and share some of the recieopes we learned in our travels and entlich (finally) in October, 3 months after our cruise we had Drew and Sarah over.

We started our preperation for the evening by heading to Central Market. We wanted to get really fresh ingredients and it is just fun for Brian and I to shop there. We picked up a turban gourd for our center piece (shown above) and also some high quality prosciutto and veal. We also had fun shopping for appetizers and all the other ingredients.


We started the meal with
Bread and Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar
we bought it in Greece
Dolma
which is a grape leaf wrapped around rice or other items
Tapenade
which is a mix of finely chopped vegetable usually olives and garlic that you can top on bread .
Grilled Eggplant with Feta

The recipe for the grilled eggplant came from William Sonoma Bride and Groom Entertaining. We started by slicing the egg plant really thin using our mandolin and then coated the pieces with olive oil, salt and pepper.
Brian used our grill pan to grill the eggplants and ended up filling our apartment with smoke. We opened all the doors and windows and used a fan to usher it outside. Luckily, by the time Drew and Sarah arrived it was all clear. I then made the filling for the egg plant out of ricotta cheese, feta cheese, basil, and allspice. I carefully rolled up eat eggplant slice starting with the large end. They tasted delicious and even Brian who hates egg plant liked them.

We went overboard!

For the Main Coarse again entlich(finally) a Mario Batali recipe like you voted one. We chose Roman- Style Veal Cutlets with Sage - Saltimbocca alla Romana from his cookbook Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes To Cook At Home

To begin we took a veal cutlet placed a sage leaf and a slice of prosciutto on top of in.Then we folded it and pounded it lightly with the meat mallet to keep it together. We then melted butter in the skittle, dredged the veal in flour and then cooked it only tow minutes on each side.
To make the sauce we used white wine to deglaze the pan and added in more butter. The result was amazing but I have yet to meet a meal that did not taste amazing that included veal, prosciutto, and butter.

We greatly enjoyed sharing our pictures and some of the new flavors we learned on the cruise with our friends.